The Sword and Laser discussion

Our book pick for next month is: NOS4A2 by Joe Hill.

Let us know what you think about the pick.

I did this in audio and Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway!) is great.

I'm not a big horror fan, but I'm a big Stephen King fan. I haven't read much of his "horror" but tend to stick to his more dark fantasy or psychological thriller books.

I feel like this book falls into a similar category. I'm sure Joe Hill would prefer to avoid being compared to his father, but to me it seems like he writes in a similar manner (albeit a pretty small sample size on my part)

Kate is a great narrator. I've started this one a few times (usually during holidays because it has THEMES) but it ends up going over my squick point. I have finally figured out that for me, with horror, I can deal better with dark and disturbing situations than dark and disturbing people, and Joe Hill is great at putting you inside people's heads, so....

I'm not trying to sway anyone! I loved Locke & Key although it is so very dark, and I enjoyed The Fireman also narrated by Kate..horror has flavors and some aren't to my taste.

^ Really appreciate that. I tend to give S&L book picks some extra credence so even if it isn't something I'd usually be into, I'll give it a whirl.

Not sure about this one. I just asked a friend about it. Her response is that she read a book of Joe Hill novellas recently and one of the stories was so disturbing she wished she hadn't read it. OTOH the other two were brilliant.

So for those who have read this book, what do we have? I'm a little squeamish about staring into the darkness. Input?

Cool, I’ve read a few of Hill’s other books (The Fireman, Heart-Shaped Box, and the Locke & Key graphic novels) but not this one. I like the way he writes (also I met him at a book launch in Nottingham a few years ago and he seemed like a great bloke, thus proving the adage that the nastier the book, the nicer the author).

Think I’ll check out the audiobook as I have plenty of Audible credits atm.

I don’t like horror, so I guess I’ll pass this month.

Well, I'm not a big horror fan. But I really enjoyed Locke & Key so I'm willing to give this a shot.

Tina wrote: "I don’t like horror, so I guess I’ll pass this month."

Chris wrote: "Well, I'm not a big horror fan. But I really enjoyed Locke & Key so I'm willing to give this a shot."

I don’t like guys named Joe, but I’ll give it a try.





(That was a joke. Or a “joek”, if you will. Won’t you? It’s 3:17 in the morning, this is as good as it gets.)

I’m guessing there are some trigger warnings associated with this one. Feeding on kids’ souls and all.

BTW, this was adapted into a series by AMC, but canceled after the second season, so I don’t know if it’s complete. Starring Zachary Quinto (Heroes, nuSpock) as the vampire. In the US it’s on Hulu.

https://youtu.be/vz8QYF87ogk

This will be the first time we have read a book by the child of a former S&L book pick author.

Trike wrote: "BTW, this was adapted into a series by AMC, but canceled after the second season, so I don’t know if it’s complete. Starring Zachary Quinto (Heroes, nuSpock) as the vampire. In the US it’s on Hulu."

It's on Amazon Prime in Oz.

My brain always wants this to be called NOS4R2 because I guess I have a habit of overemphasising my R sounds (think pirate), but then I want a mash up vampire robot book called NOS4RD2D! It's a problem. Haha.

Really looking forward to reading this - going to go with the audio because I adore Kate's voice - I'm sure it will add to the enjoyment.

Trike wrote: "BTW, this was adapted into a series by AMC, but canceled after the second season, so I don’t know if it’s complete. .."

It's complete. Season 1 was the first half of the book, season 2 was the second half.

They set it up so they could do a season 3 probably, but that would have gone beyond the source material.

I fell down a hill as a kid, so I won't be reading this book. j/k

Rob wrote: "Trike wrote: "BTW, this was adapted into a series by AMC, but canceled after the second season, so I don’t know if it’s complete. .."

It's complete. Season 1 was the first half of the book, season..."

So someone could just watch the show rather than read the book. At 20 episodes of 45 minutes each, that’s shorter than the audiobook at normal speed.

Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "My brain always wants this to be called NOS4R2 because I guess I have a habit of overemphasising my R sounds (think pirate), but then I want a mash up vampire robot book called NOS4RD2D! It's a pro..."

NOS4R2 by Joe Hill

I mean the book is better, but you do you.

Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "My brain always wants this to be called NOS4R2 because I guess I have a habit of overemphasising my R sounds (think pirate), but then I want a mash up vampire robot book called NOS4RD2D!"

Whereas I'd like a ballet called NOS4R22.

Rob wrote: "I mean the book is better, but you do you."

About The Scarlet Letter from Easy A:

Mr. Griffith: If I read one more paper from one of your classmates who talks about how hot she is in the bathtub, her fake British accent, or, “Is she still married to Ashton Kutcher?” I'm gonna kill myself.

Olive: Why don't people just watch the original movie like I did?

Mr. Griffith: I know you read the book.

Olive: I did.

https://youtu.be/58VhB4R-4XY

Mark wrote: "NOS4R2 by Joe Hill"

Oh! I guess it's not just me!

According to Joe, it's a British thing!

https://twitter.com/joe_hill/status/6...

Read the book and watched the TV series. Enjoyed both and would give them at least 4 stars. And yes, I agree Kate Mulgrew does an excellent job with the audio book.

I tried to get to the british audiobook but it keeps forwarding me back to the .com one.

Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "Mark wrote: "NOS4R2 by Joe Hill"

Oh! I guess it's not just me!

According to Joe, it's a British thing!

https://twitter.com/joe_hill/status/6..."

Which makes me wonder: how are you pronouncing “four” that you need another R in there?

NOS4A2 to me reads as “knows-four-ah-too”, with the S on “knows” being more sibilant, like the S in noose or goose. NOS4R2 looks to me like it would be “knows-fourer-too”.

Trike wrote: "Which makes me wonder: how are you pronouncing “four” that you need another R in there?

NOS4A2 to me reads as “knows-four-ah-too”, with the S on “knows” being more sibilant, like the S in noose or goose. NOS4R2 looks to me like it would be “knows-fourer-too"

For me NOS4A2 reads as Noz-For-Ay-Too

NOS4R2 is more correct to my ears. Noz-For-Ah-Too

I would pronounce Nosferatu as Noz-Fur-Ah-Too

Like most Americans, I also default to the long A sound, but because it’s supposed to be Nosferatu, I modify that. But that extra R would be confusing.

Here in New Hampshire we have an overabundance of vanity license plates (I have one too: https://www.instagram.com/p/6JvmPAu2p... ) and it’s fun to find silly alternates to what the person is going for. The most famous being PB4WEGO, which suddenly caused an uproar a couple years ago when a more conservative bunch got into the DMV and they banned it, despite the fact she’d had it for 15 years with zero complaints. The governor reversed that decision because, I mean, c’mon.

Unfortunately I DNF'd NOS4A2 years ago. While I generally like horror as a genre, as a mom I just can't do the kid murdering horror anymore. It definitely caused some serious lack of sleep before I gave up.

The 2nd & 3rd chapters are pretty magical, almost like Ray Bradbury.

Since I've already read (listened to) the pick, I'm going to get Heart-Shaped Box from Libby instead. Audio of course.

That's right. The paper book has pics.

Trike wrote: "Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "Mark wrote: "NOS4R2 by Joe Hill"

Oh! I guess it's not just me!

According to Joe, it's a British thing!

https://twitter.com/joe_hill/status/6......"

Which makes me wonder: how are you pronouncing “four” that you need another R in there?



This is a rhotic vs non-rhotic accent thing. In nearly every English (as opposed to Scottish) accent, the R on the end of a word is not sounded out - so, for example, ‘law’ and ‘lore’ sound exactly the same. So for most Brits there’s no ‘R’ in the middle of NOS4A2 unless you put one there.

Ruth wrote exactly what I was going to say. We don't sound out Rs in many words. Like Four, For, core, bore, sore etc which all rhyme with paw.

In Oz, Baud, Bawd, Bored and Board are all homophones, but in the US, Baud and Bawd are homophones and Bored and Board are separate homophones. One of these words is my surname. When I mentioned that on another forum, some smart alec told me that I was pronouncing my name wrong. 😕

Ruth wrote: "so, for example, ‘law’ and ‘lore’ sound exactly the same"

Totally different for me! North of England, but my accent is and always was a bit all over the place, even when I'd never lived anywhere else, so I'm not a perfect example of my area.

Law sounds like awe and lore, when I say it, is almost indicernable from lower

“It’s spelt Throat-Warbler Mangrove but it’s pronounced Luxury-Yatched.”

Tassie Dave wrote: "Ruth wrote exactly what I was going to say. We don't sound out Rs in many words. Like Four, For, core, bore, sore etc which all rhyme with paw.

In Oz, Baud, Bawd, Bored and Board are all homophone..."

I think it was an episode of “Scrapheap Challange” ( Junkyard Wars for us in the US) when I heard that the British skip saying 4 in the countdown to shooting off artillery, since it sounds to close to “fire”. Being a mechanical engineer I very much enjoyed that show, and took several useless facts away from it, and even some useful ones.

Tassie Dave wrote: "Ruth wrote exactly what I was going to say. We don't sound out Rs in many words. Like Four, For, core, bore, sore etc which all rhyme with paw.

In Oz, Baud, Bawd, Bored and Board are all homophone..."

So you pronounce things the way Bostonians do. Or Mainers. Or New Yawkas.

John (Nevets) wrote: "I think it was an episode of “Scrapheap Challange” ( Junkyard Wars for us in the US) when I heard that the British skip saying 4 in the countdown to shooting off artillery, since it sounds to close to “fire.""

That cannot be true! That's so dumb!

I appreciate the discussion of the horror factor of this book both here and on Discord. I'm going to pass. Just not so much a horror fan and this one seems really creepy. Y'all have fun.

FWIW I'm going to read some Bradbury, specifically The October Country and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Last year I read The Halloween Tree. I'm not really suggesting any of these as an alternate read for the more squeamish of us, but it does occur to me we might enjoy having a "Halloween Reading" thread. I'll start one if no one else does.

Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "John (Nevets) wrote: "I think it was an episode of “Scrapheap Challange” ( Junkyard Wars for us in the US) when I heard that the British skip saying 4 in the countdown to shooting off artillery, si..."

So, I went looking to the internet for verification. And all I found were anecdotal comments, and references to that show. And I had it wrong it is 5 that is skipped not 4. The logic being that radio connections used to break up, and that you sometimes would miss a few seconds of the countdown, so if you picked it back up when someone said 5, you might fire. I agree it is not great logic, and I'm not sure it is currently done.

C3PO: You are being rather rude to NOS4A2. Accusing him of eating children.
R2D2: Beep Boop Beep Boop
C3PO: And he even invited us to Christmas dinner. I doubt he will invite YOU again.
R2D2: Booop.

Trike wrote: "So you pronounce things the way Bostonians do. Or Mainers. Or New Yawkas."

If I do those "which American accent are you" quizzes online, I usually get New York (Long Island).

When I speak, you don't hear that R sound in the words I listed above (Like my surname Board (pronounced the same as Bawd) or Four (to rhyme with paw.)

If you heard me say the book title NOS4A2, it would sound to you like:
Noz-Faw-Ay-Too

NOS4R2:
Noz-Faw-Ah-Too

Tassie Dave wrote: "Trike wrote: "So you pronounce things the way Bostonians do. Or Mainers. Or New Yawkas."

If I do those "which American accent are you" quizzes online, I usually get New York (Long Island). "

My dad likes to joke that he grew up on a small island off the coast of America. People always go, “Ooh, exotic! Which one?” “Long Island. Brooklyn, NYC.” 😆

Do you also change the “th” ending to just a T? My dad does that. Troot for truth, yute for youth. That scene in My Cousin Vinny is exactly how my dad talks. https://youtu.be/K6qGwmXZtsE

I always mentally translated his speech into Standard English as an automatic reflex. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that he was pronouncing the town of Van Wert correctly and wasn’t intending to say “Van Worth”. :p

This was one of those book I had in my TBR pile forever until I had no TBR pile anymore because it got ridiculous. So nice to get around to it finally.

I've been tempted to read this one a few times. I'm looking forward to something spoopy for Halloween season.

Excellent book, right up there with some of the best of Stephen King. Probably my favorite from Joe Hill.

I started the audiobook, and (as stated above) it’s great. In fact, it’s one of the best narrations I’ve heard in the many years of listening to S+L picks!

I already shared this elsewhere, but since I have watched & listened to NOS4A2 already, I'm doing Heart-Shaped Box by him instead.

Has a 7 week wait to borrow on Libby...but the The Joe Hill Ebook Collection which includes this title and some of his other works was available right away! :D

It's also on Hoopla ebook & audiobook if you have LAPL.

+1 to all the praise of the audiobook. Kate Mulgrew does a stellar job and I was completely hooked just 2 minutes in (despite my slight hesitance about the scary factor!)

The month has been. Go forth and discuss!